It's ON Now...

Yesterday, Misplaced received the following communique from my host, Blogger:

"Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others. As a result, we have reset the post(s) to "draft" status. (If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.) This means your post - and any images, links or other content - is not gone. You may edit the post to remove the offending content and republish, at which point the post in question will be visible to your readers again.

A bit of background: the DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. If you believe you have the rights to post the content at issue here, you can file a counter-claim."

It appears that that almost-sexy soccer mom, and "crackerjack writer" Lynn Christiansen Esquer has decided that she wants to push the issue.

Fine.

I'll play.

But let's cut through the bullshit once and for all, shall we Lynn?

You have accused me of stealing content from you WORD FOR WORD. While I have freely admitted that your article was certainly a catalyst for me to go ahead and write a summary of a topic I already had on the back burner, I certainly didn't steal from you word for word.

Your original post.

My article.

Borrowed freely from you? Yes. But I also edited and re-wrote your overly wordy text to the point that while there was some resemblance to the original, it is quite clearly repackaged as a small part of a greater creation... that you didn't have a fucking thing to do with.

But since we're on the subject of plagiarism, I'm going to point out that YOU my dear, are quite simply the pot calling the kettle black.

I offer this example:

On Tuesday, March 16, 2010, you posted this article on your blog.

Which was followed by these two comments from your readers:

noh8 - March 16, 2010

I completely agree.

Great post, but a little light on the jetsam!

Leslie Mladinich - March 16, 2010

I like how you delineated everything and used the opposition’s own arguments to buttress your case. I am proud to call you my colleague!

Which was followed by this comment from YOU:

Lynn, of Bloggapalooza - March 16, 2010

Thank you, noh8: I’ll try to include more jetsam next time, my apologies for being heavy-handed on the flotsam I like your blog, by the way… thanks for commenting so I could discover yours!

@Leslie: What a fabulous compliment! Thank you!

But then I noticed THIS ARTICLE posted at business-insurance.aqimg.com.

Now wait a fucking minute...

Is it just my imagination, or have you taken credit in your blog for something that can be quite clearly attributed to another source?

Word-for-word no less.

To summarize:

You accused me of stealing content from you, and went so far as to tell my host that I had "infringed" on your copyright, and used your content word-for word, when it is apparent to anyone that reads your posting and mine that I most certainly did not.

Yet on March 16, 2010 you did the exact thing that you accused me of doing.

You completely plagiarized your March 16, 2010 article... you didn't even attempt to edit or re-write.

It goes farther than that.

On March 17, 2010 You took the unprecedented step of spamming the comment section of multiple entries of my blog with the following:

Lynn of Bloggapalooza said...

Thank you for at last attributing my work to me. I suppose I could point out that:

1. I don’t actually care if some random asshole in Duluth thinks I’m hot… and by the way, you’re definitely not winning any beauty contests, which is probably why you’re single (well, that and your general attitude);

2. For all the smack you’ve blogged about me, all I’ve done is civilly ask for attribution, then defend myself against your plagiarism (which makes me a cunt? Well, OK, if standing up for myself makes me a cunt, then I’ll take it as a compliment).

3. I guess you’re neither as smart or knowledgeable as you think you are, are you? If you have to steal people’s writing, then rely on faulty legal knowledge to back up the theft, then resort to unwarranted personal attacks when you lose… well, you’re not exactly a mental giant, are you?

Seems to me the rest of your blog post (if it’s actually original and not also stolen) could have stood on its own without my Top Ten, but if my writing makes it that much better, then you’re welcome. ☺

One final thought: Personal attacks: “The language of nonthought.” — Lionel Trilling. (see, that’s an attribution!)

March 17, 2010 9:56 PM

Seriously?

To respond to your points:

1. I'm a random asshole in Minneapolis, not Duluth. And you can see from this photo that I'm fucking hot.

You want me. You know you do. In fact, you're looking at my photo and imagining me doing all kinds of nasty things to you right now, aren't you, you dirty little soccer mom?

2. Yes. You're a cunt. The second you threatened me with legal action you became one.

3. I am smart and knowledgeable. I hold Bachelor's Degrees in Computer Science and Business from the State University of New York, in addition to a Master's in Business from the University of Dublin... yes Ireland. The fact that I was able to do all of that and have a twenty-year career in the military means I'm also resourceful, in addition to being pretty smart. Also, I didn't lose anything. My article is still there. You however, now come across to my readership as something north of psycho.

It's quite obvious that you've become obsessed with me. I noticed some unusually heavy traffic from the Bay Area these last few days... Over ONE HUNDRED HITS from IP addresses that interestingly enough are identical to the IP addresses that you publish your blog from.

You're cyber-stalking me.

(I will make my StatCounter data available to anyone who wishes to see for themselves. It identifies everything about any user who accesses my blog... right down to the type of computer they use, and which browser and version of that browser they use... Do you like your Mac Lynn? And what about the Safari browser you use, are you happy with version 4.0?)

At the end of it all Lynn, next time you decide to pick a fight, pick a fight with someone who isn't willing to kick your ass up and down the block for the whole world to see.

Now go away before I decide to make this personal.

You creepy cyber-stalking bitch.

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See the rest of you tomorrow.